Abbott says Medicaid opt-in would be 'forever,' feds disagree

Published 5:35 pm, Tuesday, July 23, 2013

AUSTIN — Attorney General Greg Abbott, in a telephone town hall meeting Monday night related to his campaign for governor, was asked by a caller about the state's decision against finding a way to get more money under the federal health-care law to insure Texans.

Republicans opposed expanding Medicaid, but some sought a way in this year's regular legislative session to find an alternative way to get billions of federal dollars available to provide coverage to uninsured Texans.

One approach would have had the state seek authority to use federal health-care money to buy private insurance for people who otherwise would be eligible for expanded Medicaid. Gov. Rick Perry gave a cold shoulder to the idea, and it died.

Most Popular

“If, as you pointed out, we could negotiate a waiver, that could be a potential pathway, but we're getting the stiff arm from Washington on this,” said Abbott. “But here's the bigger deal that everyone needs to understand, and that is what the Supreme Court said is that either we opt in or we don't opt in.

“If we opt in, the Supreme Court said we're going to be stuck in this expanded Medicaid system forever. And that means that we would be making a deal with a federal government that is already almost $17 trillion in debt,” Abbott said.

“Even though the federal government right now said they are going to reimburse us at a high rate, five years from now and especially 10 years from now, that reimbursement rate would go down,” Abbott said. According to a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a state that decides to cover people who are in the expansion group can later decide to drop the coverage.

House Bill 3791 by Rep. John Zerwas, R-Simonton, which failed in the regular session, specified that coverage would have to be cost neutral and could be limited in duration and contingent on continued funding by the federal government.